Misplaced
by x Varda x
Summary: Set in S4 shortly after Trio. Rodney is at a loss to understand what went wrong with him and Katie and tries to make amends.  Canon breakup fic for Valentine's Day.


**Title:** Misplaced  
><strong>Fandom:<strong> Stargate Atlantis  
><strong>Main Characterpairing:** Rodney McKay, Rodney/Katie  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Canon break up  
><strong>Words:<strong>~2000  
><strong>Summary:<strong>Set in S4 shortly after Trio. Rodney is at a loss to understand what went wrong with him and Katie and tries to make amends.

**A/N:**An anti-Valentine fic written for **AVFE** on **Livejournal** (Anti Valentine Fic Explosion)

**Misplaced**

How could both Jennifer and Sam say that Rodney had split up with Katie? He lay on the bed in his quarters staring up at the ceiling sleeplessly. Of course, he thought he'd been infected with some horrible disease and about to die at the time, but he had still gone back later and sealed his fate. Now she was about to go back to Earth and Rodney was at a loss to understand what had gone so badly wrong with them.

He sighed sadly and rolled over onto his side, allowing the covers to twist savagely tight around his legs, which he drew up towards his middle as he curled up. He closed his eyes against the sting there and pulled the covers over his head. No sleep was going to come this night.

He would have to do something about it tomorrow. Before it really was too late.

xxx

Rodney emailed Katie Brown the next day to formally arrange a meeting. He frowned at the cold nature of the email he had sent, but he knew it was necessary.

He also tried the radio. He received no response to either, so he set out to seek Katie in the more direct fashion - in person. Being Head of the Science Department afforded him some extra access - including knowing shift patterns and offworld assignments. He therefore knew that Katie was due to work all day in the botany labs today so she was ignoring him as usual.

Rodney's insides squirmed unpleasantly at the thought of her not wanting to even send him an email. He could abuse his authority and ask her something she would have to respond to, but he suspected she might get Sam involved if that happened and despite the less than friendly jabbing he had endured on the planet with the pit, Rodney wouldn't want to have _that_conversation.

Rodney hated the botany labs really - full of pollen and nasty smells that made him sneeze and his eyes water. Katie had always been careful not to meet him in a lab with any flowering specimens or anything he was allergic to. But she wasn't with him to offer protection today and Rodney sneezed violently upon entering the first lab.

Aside from the bright pink flowers the size of his head, there were no fauna of the human variety in the first lab.

He stepped out into the safety of the corridor as his heart fluttered nervously. What was he going to say? "Sorry I dumped you like that. I didn't realise what I was doing."

Rodney frowned and rubbed his hands round and round each other. He hated admitting he had done something wrong. Sincere apologies didn't come easily to him, more due to lack of practice and experience, but he had to do this before Katie left in two days or he would never feel anything but sadness and guilt about their parting.

He wished he had brought a lifesigns detector, but that would make him come across a little bit like a stalker. Not that his current behaviour could really be defined in any other way.

Rodney went into the second lab. It was bigger than the first and the path clear of plants curved around a corner. He had to go right to the end to check the whole lab. There were no people in this lab either. He turned around to leave and stepped on a vine snaking across the floor. He cursed at the plant as he nearly tripped over.

The plant the vine belonged to was less than impressed by Rodney's clumsy feet and a number of spines shot out towards its unwitting attacker. Some of them went sailing past, but Rodney yelped as the rest of the needles struck him. He threw up his hands to protect his face, so no spines went in his head, but his forearms got several in them and one went right through his hand. Others stabbed into his chest and abdomen and some went in his legs.

He breathed heavily in shock and pain and was about to call for help when breathing suddenly became a lot harder. His legs went rubbery and buckled under him and he fell onto the floor and landed heavily on his back. His eyes watered and a single tear tracked down his face from his right eye and he blinked it away. He could feel that his radio was still on his ear, but he couldn't move his arm to reach it. Breaths wheezed in his chest in a frightening way and then he realised he couldn't feel the needles any more.

He was completely numb and paralysed.

xxx

Katie sighed and moved the new email from McKay into the trash folder with the rest of them.

Sharon eyed her. "Another one?"

"Yes. He doesn't know when to quit."

"What does it say?"

"I don't want to know."

"Has he apologised yet?"

"No. He's so selfish, I almost wish we'd never been together."

Sharon gave her a small smile as she snipped the plant she was working on more savagely than was necessary. "Everyone knows McKay only thinks about himself all the time."

Katie frowned. "I didn't think it was true when we first met. I thought I saw something else, but now I'm not so sure."

Sharon finished her work and returned to her computer to record some data. "Hey, who's in Lab Two?"

Katie called up the roster. "No one as far as I can see. The _McKayactus Spinus_is needling this week, could it be that?"

"I don't think so."

Katie stood up. "Hold on, I'll go and see."

"Rather you than me," Sharon said.

xxx

Katie entered Lab Two and carefully walked between the dangerous plants kept there. She mentally catalogued the wraithsbain - called so because of the poisonous black sap it secreted. There was the man-sized flytrap. The McKayactus was at the end and Katie frowned as she approached. It should have been covered in spines and had been that very morning when she'd watered it.

"What's happened to you?" she asked it.

There was a rattling wheeze near her feet and she jumped. "Oh!"

There was a body hidden under the lower leaves which hadn't been visible through the thick foliage.

Katie grabbed hold of one of the visible appendages and dragged the person out. She gasped. "Rodney!"

He was terribly pale and his eyes were closed as he struggled to breathe. She also located all the missing spines from the McKayactus - dark patches of blood surrounded each spine where it had hit him.

"Medical emergency in Botany Lab Two!" Katie cried into her radio.

She gently held Rodney's hand – the one without a spine through it - but he felt cold to touch and that scared her. One of the spines had stabbed him in the chest close to his heart, if not actually in it. But she didn't think he'd still be alive now if it had.

One of the needles was embedded in him dangerously close to his groin, but thankfully hadn't hit anything vital. Katie tried not to think too hard about that. She might have being feeling vindictive towards him earlier, but she wouldn't wish that upon anyone, even Rodney.

Katie stroked his hair gently trying to offer some comfort, possibly more to herself than him as she knew the paralysing effects of the spines and Rodney was unconscious. He started to come round and his eyes fluttered and opened blearily.

His lips parted and he sucked in a laboured breath. "Katie?" he mouthed.

"I'm here Rodney." She blinked back tears. Stupid betraying emotions. This was exactly why she had been avoiding him. She still had feelings for him, even if he didn't realise what he'd done to her. "It's alright, Jennifer will be here soon. You'll be okay."

"I..." he mouthed with difficulty.

"Save your strength. The paralysis is temporary, but I don't know what effect such a high dose will have."

"I need..."

Katie brushed her thumb over his brow as her fingers entwined his hair. She squeezed his worryingly limp hand, although she knew he wouldn't be able to feel it.

Rodney closed his eyes as a tear tracked down his face. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "About everything. I was stupid." He used what little control he had left to tilt his head away from her.

Katie furrowed her brow and let go of his hand so that she could cup his face using both of her hands. She turned his head towards her and he opened his eyes as she said, "It's aright. I'm not sure if I was ready either, but you've still got a lot to learn."

She leant down and kissed his forehead tenderly.

Jennifer entered the room with her medical team and Katie let go of Rodney to guide them safely over to him. "Don't touch any of the plants," she commanded.

"What happened?" Jennifer asked as she assessed Rodney.

"He's been shot with paralysing spines from the large cactus. One or two spines contain a temporary dose, but with so many... I don't know what might happen."

Katie looked away from the limp form of her former boyfriend as the medical team swarmed around him.

Jennifer said, "Pulse is weak..." she pressed her stethoscope to each side of his chest, "Breath sounds minimal. Bag him. We may need to intubate."

The next thing Katie knew, Rodney was lifted up onto the waiting gurney and whisked away. In the whirlwind of activity a man was left behind.

"Colonel Sheppard," Katie said and prepared to explain what had happened again.

But instead of asking anything, he held her upper arm tightly. "McKay's tough. Come on, let's go and wait in the infirmary. Only if you want to, of course."

Katie sniffed. "Yes. Thank you."

xxx

Rodney was in intensive care for a day after his mishap with the cactus named after his very own prickly nature. Keller removed the spines without causing much further damage. His body successfully healed the small wounds without the need for surgery. The spines were thin and strong enough to drive through bone, such as the one that went through Rodney's sternum. They were designed to pierce even the toughest hides to keep hungry animals away. Creatures that got too close would get a fatal dose of the paralysing agent on the spines.

Fully stocked infirmaries and doctors weren't usually available for most animals being attacked by the plant. Rodney soon stopped breathing after he got to the infirmary and would have died if not for the ventilator. He was critical for several hours when Jennifer never left his side, but then he started to get better.

Katie watched from the observation room with Sheppard. She narrowed her eyes as Jennifer brushed a stray strand of hair off Rodney's forehead and straightened the sheet covering him. Katie sighed and her expression changed to one of sadness. She turned around and left the room.

John saw it all but stayed silent.

xxx

"She's gone hasn't she?" Rodney asked a couple of days later after he had recovered enough to wake up and had stopped drooling.

Sheppard nodded slowly.

Rodney sighed and closed his eyes tightly. "I really screwed up, John."

John gestured at Rodney. He was in scrubs but plasters and some larger square bandages covered him. "The prickly thing is only supposed to be a metaphor."

Rodney grimaced. "Not what I meant."

"I know." John looked deadly serious. "I'd offer some advice but I'm probably not the best person to give it."

Rodney sighed. "I suppose not."

John narrowed his eyes dangerously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rodney looked confused then shifted his expression to one that looked so pitiful that John smiled. "Sick man here."

"I was just messing with you. Besides I don't think you did anything wrong. You were only being you, right? If a woman can't understand that then you don't belong together."

"Small comfort," Rodney said sadly.

John looked over at Jennifer working in her lab. She kept casting surreptitious glances in their direction, but Rodney didn't seem to have noticed.

John said, "I'm sure there will be someone else."

Rodney sighed. "I don't know any more."


End file.
